Mark Twain Mission Statement

Mark Twain Elementary is a community of life-long learners, built upon a collaborative spirit that fosters inquiry-based learning.  Our purpose is to promote and develop responsible, active and reflective world citizens.

Welcome to the FIFTH GRADE UNIVERSITY

What's Your Story?

Central Idea:

Migration leads to cultural transformation that affects personal story

We will be summing up our unit of inquiry with a project due on Monday October 12th.  The project includes three parts:

• Cultural knowledge of at least one ancestral home (What is the culture of my ancestral home(s), and how is it different than my culture now?)
  • research and family interview 
• Migration experience of at least one ancestral line (Who, What, When, Where, How, and most importantly WHY!?)
  • research and family interview
• Evidence of changes in culture/personal stories because of ancestral migration (Who am I now? What would I have been?)

Thinking, predicting, analyzing, and synthesizing knowledge and research!

The fun part is expressing all of this knowledge.  There are so many creative choices!  Look in your child's binder for a list of possible ways to express the central idea.  As with all unit projects, a rubric will be used to grade, which gives students a clear view of expectations and grades.  Below is the rubric for this project.  A copy of the rubric may also be found in your 5th graders binder.  Please allow them to answer any questions you may have.

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Migration Story	Migration experience is complete with details including who, what, when, where, how, and why	Migration experience is complete with details including who, what, when, where, how, and why	Migration experience is complete with details including who, what, when, where, how, and why	Migration experience is complete with details including who, what, when, where, how, and why
Cultural Tranformation	Covers cultural change in-depth with details and examples of ancestral culture, personal culture, and evidence of cultural transformation. Subject knowledge is excellent.	Includes essential knowledge about ancestral culture, personal culture, and cultural transformation. Subject knowledge appears to be good.	Includes some essential knowledge about ancestral culture, personal culture, and cultural transformation. Subject knowledge appears fair.	Includes little essential knowledge about ancestral culture, personal culture, and cultural transformation. Subject knowledge appears minimal.
Connection to Central Idea	Shows a strong and reflective connection between migration and personal story	Shows a strong connection between migration and personal story	Shows some connection between migration and personal story	Shows little or no connection between migration and personal story
Originality	Product shows a large amount of original thought. Ideas are creative and inventive.	Product shows some original thought. Work shows new ideas and insights.	Uses other people's ideas (giving them credit), but there is little evidence of original thinking.	Uses other people's ideas, but does not give them credit.
Sources	Source information collected for all graphics, facts and quotes. All documented in desired format.	Source information collected for all graphics, facts and quotes. Most documented in desired format.	Source information collected for graphics, facts and quotes, but not documented in desired format.	Very little or no source information was collected.
Mechanics	No misspellings or grammatical errors.	Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors.	Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar.
Organization	Content is well organized using headings or bulleted lists to group related material.	Uses headings or bulleted lists to organize, but the overall organization of topics appears flawed.	Content is logically organized for the most part.	There was no clear or logical organizational structure, just lots of facts.

The 5th Grade Science TAKS will be given on April 29th.  Below are some sites that allow the taking of the test online, complete with scoring! 

1. http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/online/2006/grade5/science/5science.htm
2. http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/online/2003/grade5/science.htm

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Study Tips

• Our Math,  Science, and Social Studies books are  excellent reference resources, providing students opportunites to practice navigating non-fiction text.  Please encourage the use of these resources when your child has questions at home.

• Practice.  So much of fifth grade math is seeing the connections between numbers based on common factors, understanding well the relationship between multiplication and division,  and an immediate recall of multiplication/division facts. Please practice facts daily for instant recall.
• Check you child's homework each night with your signature. This not only helps us to communicate, but builds organizational skills in your child that are needed for middle school.  As part of homework each night, make sure your child's binder is organized and any homework is ready to be turned in with a proper heading including name, date, and title.

  Kidsites

• Problem Solving Critical thinking
• Math Cafe Practice! Practice! Practice!
• Time 100 Brief bios of Time Magazine's Most Influential People
• Virtual Math Manipulatives Great for improving your math skills
• Student's Classroom 
• Interactice Resources 
• Student Poetry Site 
• National Geographic Quiz Site

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at mmitche5@houstonisd.org or from the Schoolnotes contact link.